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STONE ISLAND CELEBRATES 30 YEARS

by Maria Cristina Pavarini — January 20, 2012

Stone Island, iconic high-research sportswear brand founded in 1982 by Massimo Osti, will celebrate its 30th birthday this year with a series of initiatives such as a show held within the June edition of Pitti Uomo in Florence at the Stazione Leopolda in collaboration with the Fondazione Pitti Discovery. It will be a retrospective that will explore the whole evolution faced by Stone Island throughout the years. They will also present a Book characterised by 300 most significant images covering the brand's 30 years history to be released in June / July.

Already from the f/w 2012/2013 season the brand will offer three special edition items summing up some of the key elements of Stone Island own DNA and evolution: Tela Stella, the exact replica of one of the first garments of the collection borrowed from the military world; Reflective Knit, another jacket created using a Reflective yarn, built with micro plates covered with thousands of glass microspheres enclosed in a polyester net, and 30/30, a double-use engineered garment, that sums up the key elements of Stone Island technologies.

Alongside traditional and fundamental medias, each initiative will be extensively displayed online, reaching Stone Island fans anywhere in the world through the corporate website, social network ‘ad hoc’ events.

“Thirty years but it’s not showing its age," comments Carlo Rivetti, owner, SPW Company. “I feel like they flew by. It’s a huge privilege to 'make' Stone Island, a unique brand with a one-of-a-kind history, with a DNA that makes it different from the rest.
I think that’s why we’ve been around for 30 years, bridging the generation gap. I feel like a 'surfer entrepreneur' because I love to move from wave to wave. Maybe that’s why we are still able to innovate today.”

Stone Island was founded in1982 by Massimo Osti, graphic designer and intellectual, in Bologna. In the second year, Carlo Rivetti joined the picture, buying 50% of the company from Osti in 1983 with GFT. In 1993, along with his sister Cristina, he purchased the entire company. From 2008 Rivetti took over artistic direction of supported by a multicultural team continuing the brand's tradition of research and experimentation while maintaining functionality and protection as key elements of the brand's own identity.